A Cure for Serpents - An Italian Doctor in North Africa - Softcover

A brilliant book. -- The Good Book Guide

He tells us story after story with all the charm and resource of Scherherezade herself. -- Harold Nicolson, The Observer

His account of the relationship with his devoted and beloved lioness is particularly moving -- Alec Guinness, The Sunday Times

The combination of medical anecdotes with political and personal insights...is irresistible. -- Business Traveller

People who have never had a young lion with a fractured femur in the house will be unable to imagine how unsettling it can be. In the first place, someone had to take care of the beast. Tabhatu’s work was too delicate and important to permit of further responsibilities. Tesemma was too stupid to have charge of such an intelligent animal. I sounded Jemberie and when, appealing to his religious sense, I mentioned that Neghesti was also one of God’s creatures, he agreed, but observed gravely that God had placed lions in the forest and not in men’s houses. Thus, the task finally fell to Omar: he was appointed dry nurse to the cub and he took on his new duties with enthusiasm and delight. He accepted his charge immediately, picking the little beast up with a tenderness unsuspected in those great hands, and when the cub licked him with its rough tongue he was moved almost to tears.

When Neghesti began to mee...ow desperately, we came to the conclusion that she must be hungry, and a long discussion took place as to whether a lion of that size had already been weaned. Eleonora, for whom the cub was an orphaned babe, flew home and returned with four pints of milk. During her absence, however, I had asked Tabhatu for a slice of raw meat from the kitchen, and this the lion cub had swallowed at one gulp. But Eleonora was not to be denied, and poured the milk into a salad bowl. The cub plunged her nose into it and lapped it up at such a rate that the bowl was empty in a trice, whereupon she licked it up with such enthusiasm that it overturned and smashed on the stone steps. Obviously, a mixed diet and metal dishes were indicated.